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Let's Play, How to & Game ReviewsTue, 01 Aug 2017 13:04:19 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.8.124857288Top 20 most influential Youtube Gaming Personalitieshttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/massvio/nFaN/~3/qYek5tCyJrU/top-20-most-influential-youtube-gaming-personalities
http://massvio.com/2015/top-20-most-influential-youtube-gaming-personalities#commentsWed, 07 Jan 2015 03:33:42 +0000http://massvio.com/?p=2334Gaming channels come and go, but in the end, you have forces made up of people who are driving trends on Youtube

Introduction

Gaming is one of Youtube’s fastest growing segments. Getting paid for playing video games is not a new idea, but playing while talking about it is. Gamers by the millions watch other people play video games as much as they play the games themselves.

Everyday tens to hundreds of gamers dream about the idea that they might be able to make the cut and be a Youtube star. The list below contains the forerunners to this emerging genre. I round it out with a few people who could become some of the elite.

The Established

The channels listed below have been working at this in some way or another for a few years. Many have come from a tournament, podcast, or traditional broadcasting backgrounds. While others just have a natural ability to connect with other people through their voice and personality.

The channels here have set trends, earned developers respect, and have even driven games to profitability.

Yogscast

Louis and Simon started off by playing an assortment of video games until they finally found Minecraft. At the time Minecraft had been doing okay by itself, but once the duo started to focus on the game, their careers and Minecraft as a game took off. The primary reason why Yogscast tops this list is because they brought the idea of scripting and producing videos of Minecraft into the forefront. Many successful channels have since borrowed that idea and are now very popular because of what Yogscast helped pioneer.

Today Yogscast boasts over 20 Million subscribers across 5 channels with more than 2 Billion video views.

Total Biscuit

John has a couple of aliases including, The Cynical Brit, Totalhalibut, and TB. He spent some of his earlier careers at tentonhammer.com where he met some of his current Youtube friends. For a long time, TB went it alone and traveled to cast tournaments around the world for a variety of games. Currently, TB one of the more influential gaming channels on Youtube. He often makes compelling content and champions internet causes for gamers. He is part of Polaris, one of the founding members and publishes content to support it with Dodger, Jessie Cox and random guests in the Co-Optional Podcasts.

Swifty

While Swifty doesn’t have the subscriber base as some of the others on this list, his influence is seen far and wide. Swifty is primarily known for his Warrior guides and video uploads about World of Warcraft. He has gone on to inspire many current and past Youtube stars and has established a network of fans and supporters worldwide. Switfy helped pioneer the Let’s Play Youtube advertising and sponsorships. One of his most notable achievements in this area was being one of the first gamers to get a contract with Razor and giving away thousands of Razor gear items over the past few years to his viewer base.

While John’s Youtube uploads have waned slightly recently, his Twitch presence has increased ten fold and can be found streaming 24-hour casts from his Gamer House.

TobyGames

Currently running 3 Youtube channels, each having its own purpose. Toby has a total of over 15 million subscribers and over 3.2 billion video views. TobyGames is his Let’s Play channel, originally helping popularize Terraria and Happy Wheels. Tobuscus is his entertainment channel which he uses to upload his ridiculous personality videos to. TobyTuner is his video log channel. If you want to get to know the real Toby and see some random animation check out this channel.

TobyGames — https://www.youtube.com/user/TobyGames

Tobuscus — https://www.youtube.com/user/Tobuscus

TobyTurner — https://www.youtube.com/user/TobyTurner

Drumpf

Counted as the most popular Hearthstone streamer, his twitch and youtube presence is huge. TrumpSC lives by playing video games and works tirelessly to keep both platforms up to date. One aspect of his Twitch videos that you won’t see on Youtube are his videos of him singing popular songs.

His background includes casting Hearthstone tournaments and winning some awards at Blizzcon. His loyal fan base increases everyday and can regularly stream to 30k plus, and draw in over 60k views on his youtube videos just a day after publishing.

TheRadBrad

This guy is known as one of the best Let’s Play video makers. His videos are often liked in the tens of thousands on youtube. Brad has a unique and distinctive voice armed with a very likable personality he plays games and makes you feel like you’re in the room with him.

As a prop gag he used to be known as the gamer that threw chairs, but as his popularity increased he has settled down and now mostly just entertains us with his personality.

Athene

Athene [along with Reese] is an amazing guy because he is one of the few gamers who actively give back. Raising over $20 Million in donations in 2014, he fed thousands of children. If you are not aware of that side of Athene you may know him as the ultimate troll. He loves to fuck with people and stir up controversy regarding his personal gaming achievements in games like World Of Warcraft and Hearthstone, among others.

PewDiePie

Felix is known for being a celebrity, video-gamer, and comedian who uploads horror based Let’s Play games. His sometimes over-the-top personality drives the videos and makes him enjoyable to watch. Felix has consistently been the most subscribed to gamer boasting over 33 Million subscriptions for the last couple years.

Up-and-Coming

The breakout stars of 2013 until now are listed here. Their subscriber base isn’t as large as the established, but they are on their way.

Jessie Cox

Jessie got his start at the same time as TB at tentonhammer.com, but Jessie stuck to his path and carved out a niche of his own. Today Jessie is doing his own thing, though parting with OFMGCata and WoW, he now co-hosts Co-Optional Podcast show with TB, Danger and a random assortment of other personalities. Jessie is known as a voice actor, had an incredibly successful run at a Skyrim Let’s Play and Witcher2 where he extends his talents and has even landed a few gigs in some videos games, you may have played.

Gamebreaker TV

Before there was Twitch or even before Justin.TV had made a name for itself, Gary Gannon created Gamebreaker TV. Until recently they were using Blip.TV as their video platform. Many of the old Legendary shows are no long available to watch at Gamebreaker.tv – Legendary was their breakout hit which helped popularize the small gaming empire they were about to create. Some early stars including MikeB and Lore would sit in with Gary and discuss the latest news on the popular game World of Warcraft.

After some issues regarding monetization, Gary has dropped Blip.tv, and now moved Gamebreaker TV video services to Youtube. As of Jan 2015 and this post they have 14 thousand subscribers. Undoubtedly they will reclaim their status in this medium in 2015.

Sips

Sips has his hands in all sorts of games and his unique voice and delightful personality makes him very easy to watch and listen to.

AngryJoeShow

A very smart and funny guy, angry joe uses his rough stern personality to communicate his personal feelings to gamers worldwide.

Kripparrian

He got started his broadcasting career after he got a chance to cast ESGN TV’s Fight Night Hearthstone. After which he got opportunities to cast other tournaments and his Youtube and Twitch channels started to take off. Unlike TrumpSC, Krip rarely posts loosing videos on his Youtube channel which has been propping up his legendary status as a HearthStone player.

GhostRobo

Ghostrobo has been growing rapidly. When I discovered his channel he had around 600k subscribers and as of Jan 2015 he is now close to 1.2 Million. Ghost mirrors lots of the same games TheRadBrad plays, often giving viewers a new perspective. He is different and in ways that you might not expect. He will dive into playing Wii U as well as do some of his personal video blogging on his main channel.

XboxAhoy

Ahoy as he goes by now has some amazing content on his channel. He likes to produce content in which he finds specific topics to cover and then will follow up with a series of videos. An example of that is covering guns in games like TitanFall, or doing a series of videos with amazing art direction on the history of video games.

He has a total of 4 channels right now. Ahoy2 features videos which answer questions posed to him via twitter and some Let’s Play videos. AhoyReto is for older Let’s Play titles and finally his DrinksAhoy channel is dedicated to talking about beer.

Ahoy — https://www.youtube.com/user/XboxAhoy/

Ahoy² — https://www.youtube.com/user/AhoyXbox

RetroAhoy — https://www.youtube.com/user/RetroAhoy

DrinksAhoy — https://www.youtube.com/user/DrinksAhoy

VanossGaming

Vanoss usually groups up with some friends and then lightly scripts out what they want to accomplish and then roughly do it. His videos generally provide a good show because of all the guests he brings in. Think of Vanoss as a Let’s Play channel with friends.

jacksepticeye

Jack has an explosive personality. His Irish background and accent help bring his Let’s Play videos some depth. He often plays Happy Wheels and can be found to collaborate with other Youtube personalities.

Sky Does Minecraft

Sky is in a group of players who join Minecraft servers to compete or set objectives and complete them all while have a great time doing it. Some of the more popular video series he runs are, Finish the story!! and LoveCraft.

HikeTheGamer

Known for mostly his Grand Theft Auto V scripted videos Hike has also done some Minecraft videos. Lots of his GTA V and Online videos consist of funny moment recap videos.

FRANKIEonPCin1080p

Frankie is known for his compilation videos in a variety of games he plays including: Arma 3, Day-Z, and other well-known first person shooters. His about profile on his gaming channel sums it up nicely. “The best place for Funny Moments, the Best Upcoming Games, Epic Laughs and Surviving in the Wild!”.

I have been playing Banished off and one since it was released at the beginning of 2014. With the mods kit looming there is renewed interest in the game from those of us who have put hundreds of hours into it.

With the release of the mod kit coming there will be a new wave of players entering the game and because of that I have decided to publish a list of tips from a redditor by the name of chowriit. Their post is linked at the end of this article.

These are a few highlights from his thread. (NOTE: Items in this list may change due to future patches.)

Wooden houses burn (very approximately) 30 firewood a winter, while stone houses burn roughly 15. Using trading values to calculate the value of the saved firewood, a stone house pays off the investment of building it (instead of a wooden house) in ~5 years (in pure resource costs, assuming you’re trading the firewood for the building resources – the time to pay off is slightly higher, due to the opportunity cost of using the trader).

A trading post can be great for micromanaging your supply of materials – set your desired levels up to 9999 for (for example) stone and iron tools and your traders will move them from everywhere on the map into the trading post, then set the desired quantity back to zero, and they’ll move it all out again – into the nearest stockpile and storage barn. As traders carry 5 times as much as normal labourers, this is an efficient way to move large quantities of material about, e.g. from your outer foresters. You can also mark the nearest stockpile for demolition to cause them to drop off at the second nearest, etc. I like to use this to micromanage a few hundred logs into the stockpile next to my woodcutters every few years.

Idle traders work as labourers, but despite not having their wheelbarrows they appear to still have their increased carrying capacity, making them more efficient than normal labourers (more tests are needed on this one, and it’s presumed to be a bug).

Education is incredibly important. While we don’t have hard numbers for most professions, there seems to be a 33%-50% improvement in working speed or resources gathered per action across the board. Woodcutters produce 4 firewood per log instead of 3 with education (massively improving your output of a vital resource and probably the best trade good in the game), tailors produce coats two at a time (twice as fast, but no improvement in resource efficiency) and blacksmiths produce two tools instead of one per action, while consuming the same resources (double speed AND double resource efficiency, although this is presumably a bug and that they should act similar to the tailor). It’s worth checking regularly to ensure your blacksmith and perhaps also woodcutters are educated.

The best place for your first foresters lodge? The (nearly) middle of your town! You won’t expand in buildings fast for 5-10 years, so most of the area will remain free for trees for a long time, by having a short commute to houses, food and stockpiles it will actually likely be as or more efficient as one on the edge of your town, and your labourers can easily clear out all blocking stone and iron deposits early on without having to walk too far (and frankly, that’s where you’re likely to be mining stone anyway). My current game is in year 15, and my central forester is still producing more wood a year than the two in dedicated foresting areas. Your mileage may vary.

Hold shift to build diagonal roads. They take up twice the number of squares and therefore building time (and stone, for stone roads), and buildings cannot be built efficiently on them, but if workers need to travel on a diagonal anyway they provide 41% more efficient routes (square root of two) than going around in a square, if the workers weren’t cutting the corner on the previous road.

You can find the remaining tips which I didn’t list in this reddit thread. http://www.reddit.com/r/Banished/comments/1yu1eq/banished_discoveries_data_and_tips/

Extremely beautiful environments in Minecraft are easy* to achieve. This guide explains some of the basics on how to achieve these results for yourself.

Beware though, as you will need a decent system to run these settings near, or above 30 FPS.

Some of the eye candy in these screenshots are stunning. Fog, and 3D texture mapping effects brought to life with 128px texture packs.

How do we actually get 3D texture mapping in Minecraft?

It’s brought in with a feature called Bump Mapping. It works by manipulating the shader; when light hits the face of an object, bump mapping, changes the angle of a pixel surface to allow patches of light, and dark to be displayed. Think of a pixel having 3 sides like a triangle.

I have been insanely busy with other projects and I more or less abandoned Massvio in the fall of 2011. My original goal was to create a gaming site that rivaled the established brands. Once the money ran out and I had no source of income for this site I have to face reality and move on.

Though through-out the past months since walking away I have often thought about how to re-engage my interest in this site. The amount of people who come to this site daily is still above 200. It amazes me that it is that high since an original article of any real worth hasn’t been published since early 2012.

The one thing that drove my passion for this site was helping fellow gamers through tutorials. I believe if my interest is to return to this site that is the pivot I’ll have to make. Although I haven’t proved my assumption, I believe it to be correct.

With massive updates planned for games I love, Terraria, Minecraft, and others. Expect to see some new tutorials and top 10 type posts. This time around I’ll have a legitimate manager helping me grow the site with quality content.

I think it’s funny that everyone thinks someone is pulling the dragon’s strings. The Thalmor think so. Thing is — they’re right. Someone is pulling the strings. Has been all along. Someone wants to take over the entire world, and someone is using the dragons to do just that.

That person is you.

The Book of the Dragonborn talks about a prophecy that speaks to when the dragons would be raised. It is this:

When misrule takes its place at the eight corners of the world

When the Brass Tower walks and Time is reshaped

When the thrice-blessed fail and the Red Tower trembles

When the Dragonborn Ruler loses his throne, and the White Tower falls

When the Snow Tower lies sundered, kingless, bleeding

The World-Eater wakes, and the Wheel turns upon the Last Dragonborn.

You are not the cause of the dragons being raised, but, like many a dictator, just a man who sees where history is going. The dragons are raised, you come to Skyrim to enslave them and use them in your war against everyone. How? You must be the dragonborn and save the people. None of what happens in Skyrim is a coincidence. It’s all a part of your flawlessly executed plan.

But you are a regular guy, not the dragonborn. Tell me, what’s the first big quest? To get the dragonstone. This is not a coincidence. You hire some thieves to steal the claw from the idiot merchant in Riverwood. You pop by, sure I will get it back for you. You may have a bit of gold from a shipment coming in but you’re not sure? Doesn’t matter. I will get it for you. The merchant is so happy for help, he doesn’t realize that it doesn’t make sense for someone to risk their life to get an heirloom that’s worth 60g back. Little does he know, the dragonstone grants the power of the dragonborn to the holder. The head thief knows, you had your contact explain to him that there was a power in there, just to make him a little thirstier. He’s so blinding by his quest for power, he doesn’t realize it was you, pulling the strings. After you take the power of the dragonstone, you don’t need it. Give it to the slimy wizard in Whiterun. You’re already making friends.

Because friends are what you need. You need people in the inns singing about the dragonborn. Telling everyone drinking mead that, oh, I met the dragonborn. He got me ice wraith teeth. He got my bow from the Thieves Den. Seems like a nice bloke. Anyone who says otherwise would be drowned out by everyone else. Some are easy, some are hard, but those you can’t befriend usually end up regretting it, don’t they.

All the while you are scouring the countryside collecting all of Skyrim’s most powerful artifacts. Centuries of master enchanters lend you their aid. You’ll need it when you’re taking over the world.

Next, you become the leader of every one of the factions. The companions are an easy first choice. They command respect. They are well known. And, what do you know? Whiterun is the first town you visit. This is not a coincidence. Kodlak is an old fool, he doesn’t know what you’re up to. You didn’t know their secret, but it will surely help when you start wanting people to disappear in the night. Werewolf attack, or political hit?

Next, the thieves guild. You’ll need people who aren’t bothered by locked doors when you rise to power. You need people who can get information political enemies think are secret. In politics, the one-two punch is the most effective. Destroying a political opponent is one thing, but gaining a powerful political ally in the process is even better. Two birds. One stone. Who in the thieves guild would steal from the Leader? The Nightengales, once legend, are now the most effective spy wing ever assembled. Blessed by a Daedra that owes you a favor, literally no piece of information is beyond your grasp. And you lead them.

The bards college is important too. You now control the media wing of the entire country. There are no newspapers. There is no 24hour news cycle. There are only the bards. The inns resound with “the dragonborn comes”. None of this is a coincidence.

The civil war is a nuisance, but ultimately, it doesn’t matter what side you choose. Ulfric is a power hungry dullard, but he understands Skyrim’s needs. He can be useful… At first. Who wouldn’t vote the dragonborn as jarl? Who wouldn’t vote a dragonborn jarl as king of skyrim?

Who wouldn’t allow king of skyrim to take the place of the recently deceased emperor? Worked for Tiber Septim. Worked for fucking Talos. Ulfric stormcloak isn’t riding dragons around. He can use the voice, but not like the fucking Dragonborn. Likewise, having an Empire that owes you something is always a good thing. Do you think they didn’t hear about you in Cyrodill? In High Rock? The man who single handedly stopped the Skyrim rebellion, and, did we mention, he’s the dragonborn?

The empire is falling anyway, but like any good dictator, Skyrim isn’t the only gem you want in your crown. Either side, you can be emperor eventually. And the rest of the world will fall when you enslave the dragons. The only one who can stop you from this is old Parthanuxx. He’s pretty powerful to begin with, but even worse is that he’s the only dragon with any sense or political savvy. It’s too risky to have him as an ally. He’ll need to go. Sounded weird when they wanted you to off him? Not anymore. It’s not a coincidence. You’ll need the blades when you are emperor. You plant the idea in their head. Now you just destroyed your greatest enemy and solidified your greatest ally: the blades. The heroes of the war. Most likely to give their lives fighting the thalmor. A masterful political move.

But there’s already an emperor? Not for long. You pay a simple councilman to do the ritual. He’s so dumb, he doesn’t know you are the one pulling the strings when you meet him. In fact, you were on your way back from that trip when you picked up by Imperial troops mistaking you for a Stormcloak. it also helps that you’re the “listener” and can effectively manipulate who the Dark Brotherhood strikes, doesn’t it. The Emperor? For a group of 6 people? Sounds like overkill for a Dark Brotherhood that’s caving in. Doesn’t sound like overkill to a man who wants to be the next Talos. It’s not a coincidence.

Next the mages college falls to your charisma. You’ll need them against the Thalmor, and you’d heard Psijic spies were crawling over that place. Every Daedra owes you a favor, too. All of Oblivion would support you. Deal with the new vampire upstart (or use him for your own gains), and you’re set. It’s a lot of work, but taking over the world, well, it really is. the rest of the world will be easier. With the aid of the Psijics, the blades, and the rest of the empire, the thalmor will be easy. They’ve been so concerned with Talos worship, they didn’t see the next Talos growing in power right under their noses.

None of this is coincidence. You knew all along. The real mad man, the real villain… It was you. And the best part? Everyone. Wanted. This. They just didn’t know you made them want it.

After being a faithful Halo player since the birth of the series, I knew I would be picking up this title just the same. After playing it for the last several days, I have to say, I’ve enjoyed it pretty thoroughly. I’m not going to touch on the story for the campaign, as I haven’t finished it yet. However, my primary purpose for picking up any game is the multiplayer. For starters, I’m glad they’ve kept the no frills match making system from the previous games. In my opinion the Halo series has consistently had a sound multiplayer lobby, and I think it works fairly well. Being able to select the game type only and letting the system do the rest keeps the experience stream lined and effective. Speaking of game types… what are they?

Game Start!

They have kept some of the genre standards such as capture the flag and team death match, along with some of the Halo classics like odd ball and big team battle. Personally I enjoy the objective game types like capture the flag and odd ball, They give me and my friends a chance to work in a more strategic mind set. Big team battle is another personal favorite because it tends to mix those objectives with vehicular combat, switching the strategy up again; for this installment 343 has included the usual assortment of vehicle and made an addition as well, more on that later. Dominion, however, takes the cake by combining all the best parts of death match and objective into one.

In dominion, the teams fight for control three base locations. Once controlled, the bases can be fortified, which adds cannons and barriers to the structure; also allowing for the spawning of vehicles. Imagine conquest mode from Battlefield 3 for a good point of reference. In fact, this game type doesn’t seem to be the only thing that the people over at the studio have borrowed from other games. In game modes like dominion and infinity slayer, if the player accumulates enough points through kills or other objectives, they can receive a support package (Call of Duty anybody?). In fairness, the support drops here in Halo are much less ridiculous than their CoD brethren; offering up a choice of a power-up, powerful weapon, or another less powerful weapon. They keep the fight moving, but don’t make the battle one sided. Honestly I’m glad that Halo has hi-jacked some of these subtle mechanics form other games and tuned them for themselves.

Re-Loaded

Another feature from previous Halo games was the ability to customize your armor, which has come back as expected with some interesting, yet not traditional looking, new armor pieces. One more thing you now have the ability to customize is your load out. very similar to Call of Duty or Battlefield, you are able to edit up to five load outs by changing primary and secondary weapons, grenades and armor abilities along with a few other things. These customized load outs can be used through most of the multiplayer games and offer a welcome alternative to the built-in presets. Personally I setup one for each game mode; generally having one for distance support and one for quick in and out attacks on the flag.

The only way for you to find out what really works for you is to just jump in and try them out; but the one good thing I can say is, at least there is no armor lock!

If you need an extra player hit me up, and here is my gamer tag:

Get the &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href=”http://www.widgetbox.com/widget/xbox-live-gamercard”&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Xbox Live Gamercard&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt; widget and many other &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href=”http://www.widgetbox.com/”&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;great free widgets&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt; at &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href=”http://www.widgetbox.com”&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Widgetbox&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;! Not seeing a widget? (&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href=”http://support.widgetbox.com/”&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;More info&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;)]]>http://massvio.com/2012/halo-4-multiplayer-awesomeness/feed02248http://massvio.com/2012/halo-4-multiplayer-awesomenessNatural Selection 2 – Like Starcraft…in first personhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/massvio/nFaN/~3/6-RCj_p4EZo/natural-selection-2-like-starcraft-in-first-person
http://massvio.com/2012/natural-selection-2-like-starcraft-in-first-person#respondThu, 25 Oct 2012 22:42:55 +0000http://massvio.com/?p=2207Human Vs. Alien, Shooter mixed with top down strategy.

Years ago I remember playing a pretty popular mod for half-life called Natural Selection. I am a huge Starcraft fan and this mod definitely did it for me. With its awesome mix of FPS and RTS elements it forged a tight gameplay experience. Playing as either the Marines or the Aliens you and your team pit your strategies against your opponents. With the base commander creating support structures to strengthen and better equip their soldiers, a cohesive team is essential to successfully getting your base off the ground.

Flash forward to today, in 9 more days Natural Selection 2 will be released. Following in the foot steps of Counter Strike as another Half-life mod to make it to stand alone. Still promising the same great mix of RTS and FPS; with some subtle improvements. Before the aliens didn’t build a base, in NS2 they do and I’m sure other game equalizing features have been added. But now lets get to the skinny on gameplay.

Marines

While playing as the marines, your team will rely on the ability of your teams commander to effectively develop your base to support your team. Dropping armories to provide better weapons to the soldiers or an observatory to provide more sight on the battlefield. All the while the other marines are defending the base as it gets built, and running small raids against the opposing base. Staying in groups is crucial, making it easier to defend the base structures and the team as a whole. Venturing out on your own is surely suicide as any of the aliens will make quick work of a lone marine. For those who do stay together however, varying weapons within the group will greatly improve survival. Having assault rifles mixed with flame throwers would be a solid combo for dealing with the Skulks, which are the main combat unit for the alien team. Once the opposing team starts to evolve into the more heavily equipped units, it would be wise to try and mix in an Exo Suit to your combat squad. Exo Suits are essentially huge mechanical walking assault suits. Capable of dealing massive amounts of damage with it gatling gun, they are an incredibly heavy addition to your team; and that is something you will need when engaging the alien forces en masse.

Kharaa (The Aliens)

A Skulk, the Kharaa basic combat unit.

The Kharaa, the alien team that opposes the marines, are made up of a multitude of varied alien units. Each unit has its own distinct tactics and play style. While the Marines rely on their Commander, the Kharaa rely on their sheer ability to survive. Accruing points from resource nodes and using them to evolve into more monstrous creatures is how the aliens gain the upper hand. At the start of the round all the aliens start as the Skulk and have to fight and survive long enough to evolve into more specialize creatures like the Gorge or Fade. The Gorge is a builder/healer that has the ability to build some defensive structures and can help expand the usable area for the Kharaa. Making it incredibly versatile the Gorge can also heal friendly units; successful integration of this unit is key to a solid front line assault. Fades on the other hand are a more elite unit. Not unlocked until later in a match, with the upgrade to a Tier 2 Hive. Fades specialize in hit and run, with the ability to blink in and out of combat quickly while inflicting a substantial amount of damage. Using a fade with the support of a few Skulks is a sure fire way to eat up the outer defenses of a base.

The End Game

Games are won or lost on the teams ability to communicate and work together through the ebb and flow of a battle. With support from a seasoned commander the fight can be won by either team. Fortunately, the slightly varied play styles of the two sides keeps this game interesting and challenging for rookies and veterans of the FPS genre at large. So for now I’ll sit here and bide my time for the next several days until the game launches on Halloween. Then we’ll see if you have what it takes to survive.

Lots of people think “7” means average. So, if you took a test in school and got a “C”, that would be somewhere in the “7-7.9 or 70-79%” range. Since schools have wired people to think “7/10” is average, that’s what they believe. But here’s the thing: Schools actually use a 0-4 scale, where 0 = “Fail”, 1 = “D”, 2 = “C”, 3 = “B” and 4 = “A”. Teachers even use that in their 1-10 scales because anything under 50% basically doesn’t matter (essentially making it a zero). So their range is actually 5-10. If we convert this over to a 10-point system, a C is actually about 4-5, NOT 7.

Then we have the “full range reviewers” as I like to call them – where they typically have 0-10 or 1-10 and it is ~5 or ~6 that is average. Those are halfway between the lowest and highest scores. So now you have one group that says “5” is average if we’re truly using the entire value range and then we have others who say “average quality” is actually ~2 points higher than that. This is what screws up scoring systems.

There’s a “public perception” thing that keeps the “7 out of 10 is average” mindset alive and kicking, even if it makes no sense. Yes, if you award every “average quality” game a 7 because that’s what you believe is average, numerically the average of your scores will average out to ~7. But all you did was purposefully skew the data to make its ay what you want. One could just as easily use the Game Informer system, where a “7” to them is actually an 8.5 or 9.0 (they hand those out like crazy).

You can make “average” be whatever you want, but in all honesty, on a 10 point system, it’s dead in the middle.

Critical Thinking:

As I get older, I look at games with a more critical eye. My money may be more abundant, but my time isn’t. So a great investment for me is my time and energy, rather than cash. As a result, I don’t want to play crappy games. I could fall in love with a game world (like in Skyrim) and then be horribly let down by its storytelling/ending or lack thereof. In other games like Alan Wake, I could get hooked to its characters, world, music, voice acting and story and love every second of it. Or, I could play a game like Mario Party and wish I was aborted as a fetus so that I never had to experience such cruel torture later in life.

But a lot (if not most “professional”) reviewers do not act like this. Their reviews are simply press releases, listing off gameplay modes and what you can do in a game. It’s sad to see some reviews so lacking in content you could get the same info from the back of the game box. Thinking critically about games also opens up games for criticism and, unfortunately, a lot of reviewers and sites and magazines do reviews in an ass backwards fashion – they assign a score for the game FIRST, and THEN write a review to make the score there.

Look at all the crazy love for GTA IV – people acting like it was the best game evar. Same thing happened with Metal Gear Solid 4 that same year. Giving those games anything but unanimous praise was heresy and alienated tons of readers. But if you went back to those same reviewers/sites/mags a year or so later, they were bitching about the games’ flaws just like everyone else.

I see most game reviewers as “little chicken shits” that are too afraid to speak their minds.

While I love people like Yahtzee for absolutely gutting games (what is being a critic about if you never criticize anything!?!), even they aren’t immune to hypocrisy. In his quest to review lots of big names quickly so he can cash in on timely page views, he pulls out assy reviews like that of Monster Hunter Tri, where any person who played the game knows he spent at max maybe 2 hours playing it. Really Yahtzee? 2 hours of playtime and that makes you credible in terms of reviewing that particular game?

I typically get the best opinions on games from very obscure blogs, stuff like Amazon reviews, no-name Youtube reviews and random articles from the web. Very rarely do major sites appeal to me for reviews, because they are too afraid to criticize anything. Everyone’s gotta be so politically correct with critiquing games.

On a whim I decided to pick up XCOM: Enemy Unknown. Normally I would say that I am not particularly fond of the XCOM series, but for some reason I bought it… and haven’t stopped playing it since. I played through the first couple of single player missions, and I started to really get drawn into my squad of four. However, there is another portion of the game that I want to talk about that I also started to get immersed in. The multiplayer, yup, turn based multiplayer goodness; thats what I want to talk about.

Sectoid about to get beat down.

The Squad

Just like in the single player part of the game, you are in control of a squad of up to six people. Your squad is very customizable, not as deep as single player, but satisfying just the same. The human soldiers are the only one you can really get down into the details with, but the fact that you can choose from all the alien races makes this squad creation interesting. Now, to keep the squad system some what fair, every attribute is given a point value, and each player only has a limited number for a given match; my squad for instance, is setup using a 10,000 point limit. From the eight or so matches I’ve played online so far, the best way to do it seems to be having several mid-level soldiers, as opposed to one or two maxed out commandos; however, I like to go against the grain.

My four man squad

My personal squad is composed of four members. two of the weak little gray aliens and two higher level soldiers. The two alien members of my squad, who happen to be named Fred and Barney, pretty much serve as scouts and suppressive fire support. I tend to send them around the back alleys of buildings or have them breach doors first. My soldiers, Juan and John(I didn’t name them that way), are a solid combo. John is a moderately powered sniper, with some nifty gadgets to help give sight on the battlefield; while Juan is a heavy gunner, with some nasty armor and a rocket launcher.

Tactics… nope

This game is perfect for players who love using a solid strategy to tackle their opponent; unfortunately… I don’t have one of those. Right from the outset, I have mentally written off Fred and Barney. They act as my sacrificial pawns to draw out the enemy forces. Naturally I have Juan and John in flanking positions to counter anything that comes out of the shadows; however, it seems that I will time and time again fall victim to my own observations. I am constantly beaten by well rounded squads of human soldiers, who favor better tactics than what I possess. There is something to be said for Juan’s rocket launcher though. On one particular occasion I had him breach a door to the inside of a courthouse. Once inside I had sight of the enemy troops standing outside a window on the other side of the building (here is where I would normally say something like “put 2 and 2 together…”, but I don’t like doing math in public), so naturally I made Juan blow up the wall! Luckily it took out one of the weaker soldiers, but didn’t have too much effect on the other. Even in this case, I was defeated eventually. The opposing player sent one of his troops up and over the roof of the building and they pinned me down, allowing one of their soldiers to effectively destroy Juan’s face; which leads me to my next point.

The environment

The maps that these multiplayer matches take place on are pretty awesome. The exception, in my opinion, being the train yard. The locations involving building however, are my favorite. The bar level specifically is awesome! Why do I like the bar so much? because it allows for players to post snipers on the roof top to watch over the parking lots, while the more tactical fighting takes place between the front and back rooms of the bar.

the “Bar” map

Other levels also focus on indoor combat, but I prefer the bar stage because of its simplicity throughout. The courthouse would be a close second place, with the interior involving many more rooms and a second floor. Did I mention the destructible environments? If you don’t have a direct line of sight to an enemy… make one! throw a grenade, or shoot a rocket launcher. Enemy hiding behind a car? BLOW IT UP!

But I digress. This is a game that surprised me, especially the multiplayer. If this article has even remotely peaked your interest, then please, check out the demo. Sadly, the demo only covers the single player campaign, but I found it to be pretty rewarding and a great experience. but that is a story for another day.

In a city devoid of human life, the animals run free. In fact a plethora of animals, from pomeranians to pachyderms, are playable characters. There are two main game modes to play through, Story and Survival, both of which offer a different experience. For this article however I will be focusing on Survival mode.

ANIMAL NEEDS

This particular game mode consists of picking your animal, and thriving for as long as possible. There is more to it than that though, I need to take into consideration when to eat (if i can find food), when to mate, and how to tackle the challenges that present themselves as my animal ages. The first to variables are the same no matter which animal you choose, food and reproduction are a must for your survival in this game, the challenges that unlock over time are what really vary from animal to animal. When playing as the early animals such as the pomeranian, the objectives are fairly easy; i.e. eat 2000Kg or mark territory 4 times. These types of objectives with the first few animals are easily achievable. For me, once I tried playing with the beagle, things became much more difficult to complete. Some of the objectives by this point require you to defeat 15 animals, this can be incredibly difficult if you’re in a part of the city where food is scarce. Another factor involving food is your animals hunger meter – this meter can play a large part in a play through depending on if you chose a predator or grazer; mostly because plants are much less abundant than other animals. Also, because defeated animals can be carried until you need to eat as opposed to plants, which need to be consumed on the spot. One thing I found helps me survive if food is unavailable is to breed my next generation. The reason I say this helps is because once you start your next generation, the hunger meter resets and the plants/animals available change as well.

SPEED DATING

Mating is a fairly straight forward task, and I call it a task because it is absolutely necessary. To be able to breed your next generation you naturally have to find yourself a mate. “How do you do that?” you may be asking yourselves at this point, please, let me inform you. The city of Tokyo is divided into nine distinct locations, and each location has four marking points. To be eligible to mate you have to control that location, therefore your animal has to leave his mark on all four marking points before a mate will present themselves. Even at this point there are certain considerations to be made. Two possible mates will appear in the location and each will be 1 of 3 different qualities; they will either be prime, average, or desperate mates. Why are these important? because the type of mate determines how many offspring you spawn and how many of your original attributes carry over to the next generation (or if you get flees). If you don’t breed after too long, your attributes start to diminish with old age. I only had this be a problem one time, because I was a gazelle trying to take over a suburb from a group of wild pigs… dead serious. This was actually a challenge to unlock the next animal in the grazer food chain.

Personally, my favorite animal so far has been the gazelle. Naturally, its a grazer and that limits the food supply a bit as previously discussed. However, this particular animal isn’t affected so bad due to its high hunger meter; even in the sections with the most sparsely populated vegetation I can survive long enough to hit the next zone, or a pool of water(also fills hunger meter). The down side to being a gazelle, is there are large predators, mostly at night, that love to try and eat you. Luckily, just like in the real world, the in game gazelle is fast enough to get away from most predators. Plus once you rank up to veteran or boss level, you can pretty much hold your own… remember the pig story from earlier? all gazelle baby!

MORE ANIMALS!

By playing through the Survival and Story modes it is possible to unlock around 80 animals, not including downloadable content. Each animal tweeks the experience a little bit more. Personally, this is what makes me keep coming back. I love knowing there is more to unlock and that its going to be a challenging ride.